Tuesday, May 19, 2009

what's your story?

we all have a story. our story doesn’t have to be 'profound’ to be published, in fact it is little more than the recollections of thoughts & memories from as far back as we can remember until now.

we need to know our story, hence we need to pay attention to what / why & how we are writing it. we need to know it because is the basis from which we form thoughts and opinions that become the foundation for our behaviors. these behaviors govern (to a large extent) how we live out our lives.

it’s crucial to learn & know your story. not the story you inherited from your parents, guardian or other and certainly not the story from someone who may have advertently or inadvertently bestowed pain on you.

your story begins with an examination of the chapter you are currently writing. is it the same chapter you’ve written all your life or is it a different one? is it the chapter you have always aspired to write or is it the one you feel you have to write? are you able to write new chapters, or has your life become one big continuation of the many endless chapters that have come before you? if any of the aforementioned are ‘yes’, than it’s time to turn the page.

you turn the page by finishing off the chapter you are currently writing. if you are simply plagiarizing chapters from authors who have written before you, end the book before you are sentenced to the same incarceration they suffered. if you are simply unhappy with the direction & flow of the chapter, change it up. introduce a new character, add some unforeseen excitement, head towards the climax but don’t lull yourself and others into boredom by continuing to spew the same rhetoric you’ve always written.

start your story with purpose. who do you want to be, what do you want to do, how do you want to get there and who’s going to benefit as a result. make sure your story has defined chapters with a beginning, middle and end of each chapter. this will make for an interesting read [life] for you and ensures others stay captivated and want to remain a part of it.

share your story. with the people closest to you, those in it and those who you’d like to bring into it. don’t worry if they don’t like it…. it’s YOUR story. take responsibility for it’s contents. own it. live it and love it.

too many of us are not authoring our stories. these are not the stories we want to be writing and these are not the stories we want to be reading. let’s pick up the pen and paper and begin writing what we want to see / hear / do & teach.